Rugby: Rugby-Very few positives for France after reserves struggle against Uruguay

PARIS (Reuters) – If France’s replacements were looking to turn the pecking order on its head, they failed in spectacular fashion in a mediocre 27-12 victory against Uruguay at the Rugby World Cup on Thursday.

Fabien Galthie had made 12 changes to the team who beat New Zealand in their opening game last Friday, and the reserves’ performance was largely disappointing, arguably the worst in the coach’s 41 tests in charge.

It came after two months of preparation, during which France had time to blend together and this did not show at the Pierre Mauroy stadium, Les Bleus being penalised 15 times, looking short of ideas and were somehow left relying on the boot of the ever reliable Melvyn Jaminet.

Lock Cameron Woki, a starter in both the New Zealand and Uruguay games, labelled the lack of discipline, which was patent in the scrums, as ‘unacceptable’ after France had conceded only four penalties against the All Blacks.

“In rugby, when you think you’ve got something, you lose it in the next match if you don’t take care of the little details. We started off with a disciplined performance that enabled us to win the match against New Zealand,” said Galthie.

“Tonight (on Thursday), we put in a poor performance in terms of collective control.”

While it will be water under the bridge when the knockout phase starts, the game exposed some of France’s shortcomings in defence but Galthie only seemed to care mostly about the result.

ROTATION

“What’s important is winning. We can be satisfied. A World Cup is a long-term adventure, each match is a test and group life is very important,” he said.

“A match like this strengthens the squad, making it better and stronger for the match (against Namibia) in Marseille in a week.”

The players involved in Friday’s match, however, will need to step it up against Namibia if they are to have a chance to start again in the final Pool A game against Italy in Lyon on Oct. 6.

Scrumhalf Antoine Dupont was kept on ice and the staff certainly hope to spare him as much as possible with a potential quarter-final clash against top-ranked Ireland or defending champions South Africa.

Several other players, like flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert or flanker Charles Ollivon, are in the same situation.

“We’re keeping a close eye on playing time and trying to get the players who haven’t played back up and running,” Galthie said.

“There’s Anthony (Jelonch), Cyril Baille, who is close to coming back – we have to choose the right moment to get him going again.

“We’re going to have to rotate well between the two games we have left, both so to keep the players focused and to rebalance playing time because with a squad of 33, all the players can be on the sheet for Namibia against Italy.”

Only hooker Julien Marchand, who sustained a thigh injury in the 27-13 win against New Zealand, is not available.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)